If you do get a 5300, please check the following:
The serial number has "aa" letter affixed to it, that means the 5300 already
went thru Apple repair extension program.
Check the battery compartment, if there are some sort of date stamped to the
compartment, that means the 5300 already reworked by Apple the second time,
and it should be a trouble free machine. I used to have 5300cs machine, and
it served me quite well with no problem whatsoever.
The 5300 problems are: Sometimes the powersupply cannot provide enough
juice for certain PC card, and the machine will lock up, then the infamous
hinge problem that will crack the display housing so it gets separated from
the body, then the bad powerconnector that will prevent the adaptor charging
the battery, and several other problems I cannot remember. But IMHO if a
5300 machine still running smoothly without any obvious problems after
several years, it should have been reworked by Apple, or late production
machine that had all the problems sorted out.
5300's caught fire problem caused by bad lithium ion battery (made by Sony I
think). It never happen on released model, just the prototype model and soon
to be released stock. After that, Apple change the battery to NiMH. There
are no Lithium Ion battery for 5300s available, so I guess it safe to say
that there are no 5300 that will catch fire these days.
Happy shopping!
Albert
>
> Buy a 1400 or newer if you must run PowerPC-native sw. buy a 190 or 5xx
> if all you do is word processing. None of the rest of us can assess the
> worth of saving hundreds of dollars vs. having "the latest thing" -- only
> you can see the relative value in what you want vs what you need. Very,
> VERY few of us here really need the processing power in our current
> machines (be it a G3'd 2400 or a Duo 230). We are trained by current
> society to be an impatient lot, always trying to satisfy our egos with
> toys.
BTW, if you can find a good deal on 1400 machine, that's your best pick. It
has great design, very sturdy case, and upgradable processor.
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